Taken
Gill looked back to see that Riley was not following them. She was nowhere to be seen and better yet nobody else was paying any attention to them either. Haddie snatched the list out of his hands and began to read it and Gill self consciously pushed the hand full of credits into his trouser pocket. His sister looked up at him and he shrugged, "I dont know, what do you think?" he looked around at the milling crowd here in the market, "We could just keep the money and make a break for it." Haddie tugged at his sleeve and pointed towards a food stand across the street. The greasy looking man behind the stall was skewering some sort of meat and dipping it in hot fat. "That looks disgusting." Gill complained, but Haddie gave him a hard stare with her one good eye and after a moment or two he relented, "Fine, fine, you can have a skewer." She grinned up at him in delight and they made their way over to the stand. "Whats on the sticks?" he asked the vendor. "Y' dont wanna know kid." the man eyed him through thick lashes and gave him a black toothed grin. "My sister wants one, how much?" The man raised his eye brows and shrugged, "One bronze." Gill fished out the credit and handed it over in exchange for the meat stick which Haddie snatched away and greedily began to devour. "Girls hungry." the vendor commented, "Your parents not feed you?" he looked around as he spoke as if trying to spy the said parents. "They feed us pleanty." Gill lied, "They are back at the docks fueling up." "That right?" murmured the oily man and then with another rotten grin he handed Haddie a second meat stick. "That one's on the house." "Thanks." Gill said as Haddie devoured the second treat. "Look er kid, might be your parents are fueling up down there, might be your mamma is cooking up a nice bowl of beef and mash and... well might be is all. But if say there aint nobody back there and you younguns are all alone down here, well that's bad news. Just bad news all round and I hate to see it." "What do you mean?" Gill backed away slightly as the man leered down at him. "Just like I said, kids alone down here they end badly. Especially the little uns.." he pointed towards Haddie with his best attempt at a concerned look. "Our parents will be missing us." Gill snapped and made to turn. The mans hand shot out and gripped his shoulder like a vice and suddenly his face was real close and his rancid breath almost made Gill retch. "I's trying to help you kid. Two fleabites like you all alone round here you need protection. As the man spoke he waved with his free hand and two goons broke away from the crowd and began to walk over. Haddie finally noticed what was happening and began to tug on the mans arm to get Gill free, he backhanded her and she fell to the ground. Gill made to scream out and he got a clout himself and then the street thugs were there picking Haddie from the ground and snatching him roughly from the hands of the vendor. "Take em to Wheezer. Tell him its a down payment on my loan." the merchant hissed. "Do we get a cut?" one of the goons murmured, "Been a slow day." "Take the girl if you like." the merchant spat, "One eyes chit aint worth the food she just ate." "Let us go!" Gill screamed and earned himself another clout. "Watcha gonna do kid, call the alliance? Thought as much. Take em..." To be continued...